Wednesday, June 29

SFA ORAL HISTORY INTERN ON THE SOUTHERN BBQ TRAIL IN MISSISSIPPI

Photo by Nell Knox

Last week I went up to Marshall County, MS, to interview Timothy Davis, owner of Betty Davis BBQ.

Betty Davis BBQ is located about 20 miles north of Oxford on Highway 7, a few miles south of the actual town of Waterford, MS. It’s easy to miss the signs on the side of the road as you drive along the railroad tracks, but if you look to your left once you cross the bridge into Marshall County, you see signs proclaiming “cold beer,” “live bait,” and “Betty Davis BBQ and Store.”

The store itself is a small building, situated next to a greenhouse. The place is really not a sit-down restaurant, but a mom-and-pop store that also sells bait, cold beer, and some miscellaneous goods ranging from Little Debbie snacks to toilet paper.

Photo by Nell Knox

Mr. Davis, his wife, Betty, and their daughter work behind the counter. They seem to know every customer that comes in the store, and the ones they don’t know, they still greet warmly as though they are meeting old friends.

When I first introduced myself to Mr. Davis, he asked me, “So you’re looking for the best BBQ around?”

Mr. Davis was a wonderful interviewee. He loved to talk about his family, their shop, their future plans, and their food.

-Nell Knox

Nell Knox is a Southern Studies graduate student at the University of Mississippi and one of our 2011 In-House Oral History Interns. Look for her fieldwork to appear on the Mississippi leg of the Southern BBQ Trail later this summer.